On the way home, I stopped for dinner. Before going in to order, I tried to hook up my new case. When I placed it over the face of the iPad, the aluminum hinge didn't magically align as the packaging said it would. A quick inspection of said hinge revealed that it was a complete mismatch with the shape of the iPad's edge. This got me to wondering, and to searching for fine print to confirm what I was wondering. And sure enough, I found that fine print along one of the edges of the box - the words "Compatible with iPad 2," about a millimeter high.
I kicked myself for neither noticing that verbiage nor asking the appropriate question before I made the purchase. But I was also quite annoyed with Apple. The placement and font choice of that sentence amount to a form of misrepresentation. The back of the box says "iPad Smart Cover." Since an iPad refers to both generations of devices, it stands to reason that the cover would work with any iPad, regardless of its generation. The lack of compatibility with an iPad 1, such as mine, should be more prominently stated. It leads me to wonder whether or not Apple just assumes that everybody knows that the Smart Cover only works for the iPad 2; if so, that's a pretty sweeping assumption, and it comes off to me as more than a bit arrogant.
By my use of the word "misrepresentation" above, I don't mean to suggest that Apple is in any way liable to legal action for that tiny print. After all, I did find it by reading the box, and I certainly could have found it before buying the cover had I thought to do so. I don't want anything more than to be rid of this useless cover and to get a refund of the purchase price, and Apple should be able to accommodate me on both counts when I return to Roosevelt Field tomorrow.
To add insult to injury, completely unrelated to Apple - I originally wrote this post in the LiveJournal web page interface. When I went to post, it hung. When I went back, the "saved draft" I got was blank. Hence the entire post was lost, and I had to retype it all (in my client). And now, I have to go attend to Janie and Tea Cake; that is, I have to get back to my reading for class (Their Eyes Were Watching God).
